So, the season is over and it ended without much of a fight. The Caps lost 3-1 to the Bruins in Game Five and we’ll be without meaningful Caps hockey until mid-October.
This one will be fewer numbers and more thoughts and bright sides.
- The Caps gave it one last go in Game Five and unfortunately were eliminated in five games in the first round for the second consecutive season. That is now three straight first-round exits after the 2018 Stanley Cup victory.
- They gave it a good effort, limiting the Bruins to only 19 shots on goal and recording 41 shots of their own. That effort was seen similarly in the disparity of five-on-five shot attempts (57 to 36) and scoring chances (25 to 13) but was just not enough.
- A major, major, major issue in this series was the play of the Caps special teams. The power play went 3-for-21 and I think three was probably a generous amount of goals. It was very bad. The penalty kill was also very bad. The Bruins scored on 26.3-percent of their opportunities which would have been good for the second-best power play unit in the regular season.
- Okay, well that’s it for this game, series, and season. Thank you for reading these posts for yet another year and for reading RMNB in general. I think we have a fun offseason ahead of us and some definite hope for another big run by the Caps. I’ll talk about that more after we jump over this scary tweet.
Alex Ovechkin’s 13-year, $124 million contract with the Capitals has now expired.
— Andrew Gillis (@Andrew_Gillis70) May 24, 2021
- He was worth that entire contract times five. I know some may be worried, but I personally don’t have any doubt that Alex Ovechkin will be back. It might take until after the expansion draft with an unofficial, wink wink type deal but he’ll be back. This is his team and his city. I also have zero doubt that he’ll be grabbing another 40 goal season next year.
- The Caps get dogged a little about their prospect system because they trade a lot of picks to stay in contention. They don’t trade all of their picks though and the ones they’ve kept recently have pretty much all hit. Connor McMichael had a fantastic first professional season in Hershey. Alex Alexeyev had a great growing year that saw him become one of the KHL’s top rookies and best defensemen. Martin Fehervary led Hershey’s defensive corps on a Bears team that was the best in the AHL. Brett Leason took a big step forward in his development as he got better and better all year, culminating in him making it up to DC as a playoff black ace. Aliaksei Protas was named the KHL’s Best Rookie of the First Round and was the best 20-or-under player in the KHL this season, notching a league-high 10 goals and 18 points among his peers. Bobby Nardella led his SHL team in scoring. Hendrix Lapierre stayed healthy all season and finished top 10 in the QMJHL in points per game. Kody Clark, Riley Sutter, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, and Garrett Pilon all also took steps towards the NHL this season.
- I said previously that I think the pieces of a contender are still littered across this team and they have a coach that plays a style that will work in the playoffs. I have a different feeling about this team right now than I did when they lost to the Islanders a year ago and it’s a positive one which is not usually my outlook in life (lol). Some aggressive moves definitely need to be made in the offseason within the forward group (you already know what I’m referring to), the team needs to play some of the dudes listed above at the NHL level, and Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek both need to take another step. It should be a very interesting summer. Let’s ride this wagon till the wheels fall off and all of a sudden it’s Halloween and these creepy-ass cicadas are gone.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Headline photo: KP8 Design
